Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

AnkleGate Part 2

CLEVELAND — It was a pretty embarrassing scenario for that camera man to suddenly be thrust into the spotlight by tripping and falling on Doug Mientkiewicz, injuring the first baseman’s left ankle. That doesn’t mean Mientkiewicz was happy to hear the guy got fired for it.

"Did he really?," Mientkiewicz said after New York’s 12-3 loss. "I didn’t want that, by any means. Accidents happen. I hope they come back and — that’s kind of harsh, isn’t it?"

At that point, one of the reporters in the crowd surrounding Mientkiewicz’s locker pointed out that the camera man was just a freelancer — not a full-timer for his network.

"Still, that doesn’t matter," Mientkiewicz said. "Trust me, there’s a lot better players he could’ve sabotaged than me. That shouldn’t happen. It was a mistake and people make mistakes. I feel bad. He doesn’t deserve that. He deserves better than that."

Mientkiewicz was pulled from the game early, but Yankees manager Joe Torre said that had nothing to do with the sore ankle. Although, torre did say it appeared as though Mientkiewicz was hobbling some during the game. The first baseman didn’t agree.

"I play when I’m told to play," he said with a shrug. "If I looked like I was hobbling around, I didn’t feel like I was hobbling around. I was totally fine."

Maybe he wasn’t hobbling, but the Yankees as a whole sure went limp against the Indians. They drove C.C. Sabathia’s pitch count up early and chased him from the game, but New York couldn’t turn one of Sabathia’s six walks into a run and Cleveland’s bullpen overpowered the Yanks in the final four innings.

9 Comments

It was nice of Mientkiewicz to support the camera man , he is a class act for sure. Whether the camera man was freelance or not , we all have to make a living .
Jordan, sorry your cubbies are struggling .They deserve kudos for their accomplishments this year

gs , I would love to see a series between Cleveland and Colorado (the underdog thing again )

I was going to post my playoff picks when I got to Cleveland, then I didn’t and now the first round is underway — so it’d be kind of pointless to make first-round picks with some games in the books now.

I will say that I thought the Cubs would do better than they have against Arizona, and I’m not surprised to see the Rox still rolling against the Phils. I would’ve picked Rox-Cubs for the NLCS, but that doesn’t look too promising now.

In the AL, my picks would’ve been the Tribe against the Red Sox in the ALCS, and I can safely stick by that pick right now. For the World Series, I might’ve gone sentimental with a Cubs’ pick, but I would’ve tabbed the Indians as the series winner.

I like Cleveland’s pitching for a playoff format, and they have a potent offense, as evidenced last night. So, I’ll say Cleveland vs. Colorado in the Series. We’ll see if that holds up or not. You would think the Rox were due to cool off at some point.

Colorado barely made it , only taking the wild card from the padres in 13 innings . They have never won a WS and only been in the post season once before . I would consider them an underdog. One that is gaining momentum

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